All You Can't Leave Behind
by L.ABishop
Summary: When Bella Swan left the sleepy town of Forks for the summer in order to visit her mother, she never expected to come back to a town that had been turned on its axis. But now she's back and all the town, especially the kids at school, can seem to talk about is the new family that moved in over the summer. Can Bella help heal old wounds? And can the new town rebel help heal hers?


**PROLOGUE**

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**December 15, 2013**

The car came to a stop out front of the small, white house I had called home for the past year and a half.

"You want to do this?" I asked, unbuckling myself from the passenger seat. I turned toward him. There was a brief moment where I waited to see if he would even look at me. He didn't. Instead he just kept his unseeing stare on the thick patch of darkened woods directly in front of us, a couple of yards away. I was suddenly exhausted. The kind of weariness you can feel straight down to the center of your aching bones. The kind you know no amount of sleep can restore. A quiet, defeated sounding sigh escaped my lips but I managed to keep my voice relatively steady as I said, "Fine let's do this, we're done. I'm done."

He didn't answer for a long moment and remained as still as a perfectly sculpted roman statue, the light from the street lamp casting an eerie orange glow on the sharp planes of his face. After a few minutes of near silence, broken only by the barely audible music coming from the radio, I began to wonder if he had heard me when he suddenly seemed to shake himself out of whatever trance he was in and turned his gaze toward me. His eyes, the color of polished emeralds and which I'd seen burn with such intensity it stole my breath, were cold flat stones staring back at me. The last shred of hope I didn't even know I had been holding onto suddenly vanished with that one look, I felt as empty as the eyes staring back at me.

"What?"

"You heard me." I murmured softly, holding back the tears I could feel pooling in my eyes. It was as if I could literally see the past year and half slipping through my fingers and there was nothing I could do. It couldn't go on like this anymore. It would destroy us both. It took everything I had left in me to say the words again. "We're done, Edward."

"Done." He said it slowly, purposefully. His brow furrowed and his nose wrinkled as if the word were a wine that left a cold, bitter taste on his tongue.

"Yes. I deserve better than this Edward. _You_ deserve better than this. You _are_ better than this, but for some reason you can't see it. You don't see yourself the way I see you. The way Alice sees you. The way your parents see you."

He remained silent, turning his head back to stare out the front of the car.

"I've tried…but nothing I say seems to make any difference. You have to forgive yourself Edward, I can't do it anymore. I…I love you…so much…but I just can't. It's killing me."

The last part was barely a whisper and before the hot tears I was scarcely keeping in check overflowed I grabbed my orange book bag from the floor of the car and pushed opened the passenger door. The frigid December air was like thousands of sharpened needles piercing my pale skin, but I welcomed the pain that let me know that even though it certainly felt like it, my heart hadn't actually been ripped from my chest.

I heard the leather seats shift softly as Edward leaned across toward the passenger side of the car.

"Bella." My name was a delicate whisper on his lips, almost as if he were afraid to say it for fear I would disappear. I closed my eyes and turned to him as a tear finally broke free and left a sardonic trail down my cheek. When I was finally able to bring myself to open my eyes I found my gaze immediately locked with his. It was no longer a cold, distant stare he fixed me with. Instead he looked at me with eyes full of regret, full of anger, and full of longing. I waited for him to say something—anything—to make me get back in that car with him. After a long moment of silence he shook his head as if to clear it and let out a heavy breath.

"I'm sorry Bella." He suddenly murmured, and then he quickly reached over and shut the door before turning on the ignition and pulling away from the curb. I watched, frozen in place as the car made its way up the street and then disappeared around the corner. Another tear made its way down my face, followed by another and then another still.

In that moment I don't know who I hated more. The broken boy who couldn't let go of the past, or myself for letting go of him.

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**Disclaimer:**I own nothing Twilight or Twilight related.

**Authors Note: **Okay hi! I am Lena. I hope you enjoy this story. This story will have mature language, sexual content and other stuff not suitable for children. Or at least, I'm planning on it. Anyway, just warning you now. I would really appreciate a review to let me know what you guys thought about this prologue and what you think is happening here. I mean it's obvious they broke up...but care to venture as to why? I find the less information given, the more entertaining the answers. Also, to keep things interesting, what was your worst break up? And I don't heartbreaking really...I mean was it via text, was the person a jerk etc. Of course you don't have to answer and I won't post answers here. I would just like to get an interaction started here. I will of course be responding to any and all reviews as long as time allows. If something is very important, please PM me and I will respond :) Oh also, the songs that inspired this prologue and the story in general were Breaking Your Own Heart by Kelly Clarkson and Drift by Forty Foot Echo. I'll be posting a track listing of songs o my profile later on.

Much respect,

Lena


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